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GNOME 3 vs. Unity: A Schism in the Making?

The face of the Linux desktop is drastically evolving. While the Linux communities struggle to bring more business and home users to the Linux desktop, existing users face choices about adopting redesigned desktop shells or finding suitable replacements. The fallout might well be the start of a Great New Linux Schism.

The Linux desktop has always been rife with choices. The big two in the ongoing contest for desktop environment users is GNOME and KDE. Both recently underwent massive redesigns. GNOME 2 morphed into version 3.0 with a radically different look and feel. KDE 4 is also graphically much different from the KDE 3 lineage. KDE 4's Plasma Desktop Shell brings considerable new eye candy and performance hikes.

But the XFCE desktop environment is a popular alternative. Plus, LXDE and more bare-bones systems such as FVWM and IceWM add to the growing options list confronting Linux users.

Not to be outdone, Ubuntu Linux operating system developer Canonical recently released version 11.04, known as "Natty Narwhal." This latest version marked the official roll-out of the redesigned Unity scheme as the default desktop.

More in Tux Machines

Developing Linux Is Essential To Intel's Success

The dominant position of Intel in the server processor market is likely helped by the company's consistent strong support for Linux. Based on the W3Techs chart below, Linux is almost as popular as Windows-based servers are.

Firefox OS heading for Africa — and the U.S. too

Orange announced a $40 “Klif” Firefox OS phone for Africa, and Mozilla says it’s working with Verizon Wireless and others on Firefox OS feature phones.
There’s still no evidence that Mozilla’s HTML-focused Firefox OS has made much of a dent in the world smartphone market, where it has been focused on low-end devices sold primarily to emerging markets. Yet, Firefox OS still leads the way among upstart, Linux-based mobile operating systems, and will soon be available in more than 40 markets, this year, on a total of 17 smartphones, according to its latest stats. Meanwhile, the very first Tizen (Samsung Z1) and Ubuntu (BQ Aquaris E4.5) phones have only just shipped, and Jolla’s Sailfish OS based Jolla phones are still mostly limited to Europe.

Why large companies use open source ERP

The main reason larger companies use open source Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is because they are cheaper and easier to customize.

Latest News

New Ubuntu Phone Separates the App from the Data

As CIO Journal has noted, Mr. Shuttleworth envisions the rise of an Ubuntu-powered phone that runs desktop grade applications and plugs into peripherals such as large displays and keyboards. In other words, he is working to achieve true mobile-desktop-laptop convergence — the only computer you need, in your pocket, all the time. He tried to raise $32 million to fund development of such a phone, known as the Edge, in a widely publicized crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. The campaign ended in 2013, short of its goal.

Korora 21

My install went quite well, I had no problems and the install itself was relatively speedy. Bear in mind, however, that I have used the Anaconda installer often in the past. So I’m quite familiar with how it is laid out and what it has to offer. Use the Fedora install guide for Anaconda I linked to above if you’re new to it as it might save you some time when installing Korora 21.

How to run Linux and Chrome OS on your Chromebook

Chromebooks are pretty darn handy. Even some hardcore Windows users now acknowledge that a Chromebook might be just what you need for work. But, as great as Chromebooks are, and as much progress as Google has made in getting "Web-only" apps such as Google Docs to work offline, there are still times that you want an application that's only available off-line such as the LibreOffice office suite or the GIMP photo editor. For those times, it's darn handy to be able to run a Linux desktop on a Chromebook.